Africa: Why Keeping Africa's Workers Cool Is An Economic Imperative

What the report says

A report distributed by AllAfrica says extreme heat is increasingly hurting productivity and incomes across Africa, especially for people in the informal economy. Farmers, market traders and delivery workers are among those described as losing work time, seeing goods spoil or struggling to keep earnings stable during hotter periods. The piece places the issue in the wider context of rising heat stress on workers across the continent and notes that the economic effects can be especially severe when people lack paid leave or other income protection.

The article focuses on a Shell Foundation-supported initiative, the SPACES programme, which has tested electricity-free cooling tools in Nigeria, Ghana and India. According to the report, nearly 12,000 workers and micro-entrepreneurs took part in trials of passive cooling options such as reflective materials, evaporative garments and cooling canopies. The reported outcomes included more deliveries completed by riders, more hours worked by traders and reduced spoilage in some pilot settings.

At the same time, the report says affordability remains the main barrier to wider use. It cites a cooling-canvas umbrella for traders that costs about $3,000 when imported, underscoring the gap between the technology’s benefits and what informal workers can pay. The report says Shell Foundation and partners are now exploring local manufacturing, bulk purchasing and financing models to make these products commercially viable and to expand access at scale.